Right to Rebel (idea)

Taking John Locke's principles which stated that all men had the right to Life, Liberty, and Property, Thomas Jefferson modified these rights to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. However, he added his own Right, which was the Right to Rebel. This Right worked on the asssumption that a government's purpose was to protect the people's aforementioned rights, and if the government did not succeed in it's duties it was the people's right, almost responsibility, to rebel against the replace the defective government. Jefferson clearly stated this idea in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."